JPH10282940A - Tft-lcd driving circuit and driving method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce electric power consumption by re-using electric charges charged in data lines by connecting odd numbered data lines of TFT-LCD driving circuit to even numbered data lines via transfer gates during a blanking time. SOLUTION: This driving circuit is provided with a data driving part 20 outputting video data to each picture element via a plurality of data lines DL and a liquid crystal panel 10 displaying video signals supplied via the above each data line DL. In this case, the driving circuit is configured by comprising a transfer gate part 40 which is arranged between the data driving part 20 and the liquid crystal panel 10 and re-uses electric charges charged in the data lines DL by an electric charge reuse control signal CR a blanking time, inputted during.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD).
or Liquid Crystal Display: hereafter referred to as TFT-LCD) driving circuit and driving method.
TF capable of reducing power consumption and preventing deterioration of characteristics of liquid crystal and TFT by using a dot inversion (Dot Inversion) method and a column inversion method.
The present invention relates to a T-LCD drive circuit and a drive method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional TFT-LCD driving circuit is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, a liquid crystal panel 10 having a plurality of pixels 5 arranged at respective intersections of a plurality of gate lines GL and a plurality of data lines DL, and each pixel via a data line DL of the liquid crystal panel 10 And a gate line G of the liquid crystal panel 10 for supplying a video signal to the liquid crystal panel 10.
And a gate drive unit 30 for selecting L and turning on the plurality of pixels 5 connected to the gate line GL.

Each pixel 5 has a plurality of thin film transistors 1 each having a gate connected to the gate line GL and a drain connected to the data line DL, and a storage capacitor Cs connected in parallel to the source of the thin film transistor 1. And a liquid crystal capacitor Clc. Hereinafter, the operation of the conventional TFT-LCD driving circuit thus configured will be described.

[0004] First, a shift transistor (not shown) of the data driver 20 sequentially receives video data for each pixel and stores the video data as video data corresponding to each data line DL. Next, the gate driving unit 30 outputs the gate line selection signal GLS to output the plurality of gate lines GL.
Among them, one gate line GL is sequentially selected. Accordingly, the plurality of thin film transistors 1 connected to the selected gate line GL are turned on, and the image data stored in the shift transistor of the data driver 20 is applied to the drain, and the image data is displayed on the liquid crystal panel 10. You. Thereafter, such an operation is repeated, and the video data is continuously displayed on the liquid crystal panel 10.

[0005] At this time, the data driving unit 20 outputs the VCO
M, a positive video signal (Positive video signal) and a negative video signal (Negative video signal) are supplied to the liquid crystal panel 10 to display the video data on the liquid crystal panel 10. That is, as shown in FIG. 6, the conventional TFT-LCD driving circuit is configured such that a positive video signal and a negative video signal are output each time a frame is converted so that no DC voltage is applied to the liquid crystal when driven. Are alternately applied to the pixels. In order to make this possible, VCO which is an intermediate voltage between a positive video signal and a negative video signal is applied to the electrode of the liquid crystal panel of the TFT-LCD.
M is applied.

However, if a positive video signal and a negative video signal are alternately applied to the liquid crystal panel based on VCOM, the light transmission curves of the liquid crystal become inconsistent and a flicker effect occurs. Therefore, in order to reduce the occurrence of such a flicker effect, a frame inversion (Frame Inversion) as shown in FIGS.
version), Line Inversion,
Four methods such as Column Inversion and Dot Inversion are used.

That is, FIG. 7 shows that the polarity of the video signal changes only when the frame is converted in the TFT-LCD driving method using the frame inversion method. FIG. 8 shows that in the TFT-LCD driving method using the line inversion method, the polarity changes every time the gate line GL is converted. FIG.
Is a TFT-LCD using the column inversion method
In the driving method, the polarity of the video signal changes every time the data line DL is converted and each time the frame is converted. FIG. 10 shows each data line in the TFT-LCD driving method using the dot inversion method. D
This shows that the polarity of the video signal changes each time the L gate line GL is converted and each time the frame is converted. 7 to 10, + represents a positive video signal, and − represents a positive video signal.
Indicates a negative video signal.

[0008]

At this time, the image quality is good in the order of frame inversion, line inversion, column inversion and dot inversion, but the probability that the polarity changes in proportion to the image quality is high. As a result, power consumption increases accordingly.

This point will be described below with reference to the dot inversion shown in FIG. 11 as an example. That is, FIG. 11 is a signal waveform diagram of the odd-numbered data lines DL and the even-numbered data lines DL input to the liquid crystal panel 10 at the time of dot inversion, and as shown in the drawing, every time the gate line GL is converted. Each time, the polarity of the data line DL with respect to the video signal VCOM changes.

At this time, assuming that the TFT-LCD panel expresses a uniform gray as a whole, the video signal change width V of the data line DL is VCOM.
DOO positive for twice the range of change in the variation width or VCOM and the negative image signal of the video signal, the capacitance of the data line DL as C _L, power consumption P at the output end
When 1 is calculated, the following equation is obtained.

[0011] P1 = VDD · Iave = VDD ( C L · V · Freq GL) where, VDD is the power supply voltage, Freq _GL denotes a gate line frequency. As described above, the dot inversion method has a disadvantage that a large amount of power is consumed because the video signal changes from positive to negative with respect to VCOM every time the gate line GL is converted.

Therefore, such a conventional TFT-LC
In a D drive circuit, when a liquid crystal display device is manufactured using a polycrystalline silicon thin film transistor (Poly-Si TFT), a large amount of power is consumed and heat generation increases. Degradation). Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of such a problem in the conventional TFT-LCD driving circuit, and has been made in consideration of the TFT-LCD driving circuit capable of reducing power consumption.
It is an object to provide an LCD driving circuit and a driving method.

[0013]

To achieve the object of the present invention, a data driver for outputting a video signal to each pixel via a plurality of data lines; And a liquid crystal panel for displaying a video signal supplied via the TFT-LCD drive circuit, a charge input between the data driver and the liquid crystal panel and input during a blanking time. A transmission gate unit is provided to enable the electric charge charged in the data line DL to be reused based on the reuse control signal.

According to the TFT-LCD drive circuit, during the blanking time, the charge recycling control signal is applied to the TFT-LCD drive circuit, and adjacent data lines are short-circuited to each other. As a result, a part of the charge of the data line charged by the positive video signal moves to the data line charged by the negative video signal, and the charge of the data line can be effectively reused.

[0015] The transmission gate section may comprise a plurality of transmission gates connected between the odd-numbered data line and the even-numbered data line adjacent thereto, for example. Can be. When the transmission gate section is composed of a plurality of transmission gates, each transmission gate T
G can be configured by connecting a PMOS transistor and an NMOS transistor in parallel with each other.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the transmission gate section includes a pass transistor section, and the pass transistor section is connected between an odd-numbered data line and an even-numbered data line adjacent thereto. It is also possible to constitute each pass transistor. As described in claim 5, the charge recycling control signal is set to be generated every time a gate line or a frame is converted.

Alternatively, the charge recycling control signal can be set to be generated during a predetermined blanking time.
8. A driving method of a TFT-LCD driving circuit of a dot inversion method and a column inversion method, wherein a charge recycle control signal is applied during a horizontal blanking time or a vertical blanking time to form odd-numbered data. The line and an even-numbered data line adjacent to the line are short-circuited, and the charge stored in the data line is reused.

[0018]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The same parts as those in the related art are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted. TFT-LC according to the present embodiment
As shown in FIG. 1, the D driving circuit is a conventional TFT-L
The CD drive circuit further includes a transmission gate unit 40 for short-circuiting the odd-numbered data line DL and the even-numbered data line DL adjacent to the odd-numbered data line DL by the charge recycling control signal CR to reuse the charge charged in the data line DL. It is configured.

The transmission gate section 40 is composed of a plurality of transmission gates TG connected between odd-numbered data lines DL and even-numbered data lines DL, and each transmission gate TG is connected in parallel with each other. It comprises a PMOS transistor (not shown) and an NMOS transistor (not shown), and is controlled by a charge recycling control signal CR and a charge recycling control signal / CR inverted by the inverter 41. As described above, if each transmission gate TG is composed of only two MOS transistors, the structure of each transmission gate TG and the structure of the transmission gate unit 40 can be simplified.

Hereinafter, the operation of the TFT-LCD drive circuit according to the present embodiment thus configured will be described as follows. First, the data driver 20 sequentially receives video data for each pixel and outputs the video data as a video signal corresponding to a plurality of data lines DL. The gate driver 30 outputs a gate line selection signal GLS to output a plurality of gate lines. GLs are sequentially selected one by one.

As a result, the thin film transistor connected to the selected gate line GL is turned on, and the video signal output from the data driver 20 is supplied to the liquid crystal panel 10 via the odd data line DL and the even data line DL. Will be displayed. At this time, the transmission gate unit 40
When the charge recycling control signal CR is turned on, the odd-numbered data line DL and the even-numbered data line DL adjacent thereto are short-circuited, and a part of the data line DL charged by the positive video signal is charged. Is moved to the data line DL charged by the negative video signal to enable the charge to be reused.

Next, the video signal input from the outside is
There is a blanking time during which a video signal is not input between frames and between the gate lines GL. The blanking time between the gate lines GL is called a horizontal blanking time, and the blanking time between frames is called a vertical blanking time. In general, the horizontal blanking time is 5.72 μsec, and the vertical blanking time is about 10 μsec.

During the blanking time, the charge recycle control signal CR having a predetermined pulse width is transmitted to the transmission gate unit 40.
To turn on a plurality of transmission gates TG, respectively, to reuse the charge charged in the data line DL.
At this time, the charge recycling control signal CR is turned on when the horizontal blanking time of each gate line GL is reached in the case of using the analog drive method, and is turned on in the case of using the digital drive method. After that,
Since it can be used together with a line pulse signal immediately before digital / analog conversion, it can be used for both analog and digital drive systems.

FIG. 2 is a waveform diagram showing signal waveforms when electric charges are reused during the horizontal blanking time between the gate lines GL when the dot inversion method is used. After the line GL is turned on, the odd-numbered data line DL and the even-numbered data line DL adjacent thereto are connected to each other, and both have a voltage of about VCOM regardless of the external power supply. .

Further, as shown in FIG. 3, gate line selection signals (GLS # 1 to GLS # N) are sequentially input from the gate driver 30, and each gate line (GL # 1) is supplied during the horizontal blanking time. When the charge recycling control signal CR of (−GL # N) is turned on, the plurality of transmission gates TG of the transmission gate unit 40 are turned on. As a result, the odd-numbered data line DL and the adjacent even-numbered data line DL pair are short-circuited, and as shown in FIG. 2, the voltage between the two data lines DL becomes an intermediate level VCOM and charges are accumulated. It can be reused.

Thereafter, when the charge recycling control signal CR is turned off, the odd-numbered data line DL and the adjacent even-numbered data line DL are separated from each other, that is, the short-circuit state is released, and the data driving is performed. The video signal output from the unit 20 is displayed on the liquid crystal panel 10 via each data line DL. Thus, the conventional T
In the FT-LCD circuit, the change width of the video signal on the data line DL due to the external power supply is V, but in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. , The voltage changes, and the voltage change by the external power supply is reduced by half. As a result, the power consumption P2 at the output end is reduced by half as follows.

[0027] _{P2 = VDD [C L · (} 1/2) V · Freq GL] = (1/2) VDD [C L · V · Freq GL] = (1/2) P1 and FIG. 4, the FIG. 9 shows a case where the TFT-LCD driving circuit according to the embodiment is applied to a column inversion method, in which charge is reused by applying a charge recycling control signal CR during a vertical blanking time between frames. The waveforms of the respective signals are shown in FIG. And the operation at this time is the same as the above-mentioned dot inversion method,
The power consumption at the output is also reduced by a factor of four.

[0028]

As described above, the TF according to the present invention
According to the T-LCD drive circuit, when applied to the dot inversion method and the column inversion method, during the blanking time, the charge reuse control signal CR is applied to the TFT-LCD drive circuit and the odd-numbered data lines are applied. DL
In addition, since even-numbered data lines DL adjacent thereto are short-circuited and charges on the data lines DL are reused, the power consumption at the output terminal can be reduced to １ ／.

In addition, since the generation of heat is reduced as the power consumption of the drive circuit is reduced, when a liquid crystal display device is manufactured using a polycrystalline silicon thin film transistor (Poly-Si TFT), the liquid crystal and the TFT due to heat are not heated. There is an effect that characteristic deterioration can be reduced. Further, when the present invention is applied to an analog driving method, there is an effect that analog switches of data lines can be reduced in size to reduce feedthrough noise.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a TFT-LCD drive circuit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a waveform diagram of each drive signal in the TFT-LCD drive circuit of FIG.

3 is a signal waveform diagram when a dot (Dot) inversion method is applied to the TFT-LCD drive circuit according to the embodiment shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing signal waveforms when a column inversion method is applied to a TFT-LCD drive circuit according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a conventional TFT-LCD drive circuit.

6 is a waveform diagram of each drive signal in the conventional TFT-LCD drive circuit shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram when a frame inversion method is applied to a conventional TFT-LCD drive circuit.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram when a line inversion method is applied to a conventional TFT-LCD drive circuit.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram when a column inversion method is applied to a conventional TFT-LCD drive circuit.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram when a dot inversion method is applied to a conventional TFT-LCD drive circuit.

FIG. 11 is a signal waveform diagram of a general dot (Dot) inversion method.

[Explanation of symbols]

 5: Pixel 10: Liquid crystal panel 20: Data driver 30: Gate driver 40: Transmission gate unit

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A TFT-LCD comprising: a data driver for outputting video data to each pixel via a plurality of data lines; and a liquid crystal panel for displaying a video signal supplied via each of the data lines. In the driving circuit, disposed between the data driving unit and the liquid crystal panel,
A TFT-LCD driving circuit, comprising: a transmission gate unit for reusing a charge charged in the data line based on a charge recycle control signal input during a blanking time. 2. The transmission gate unit according to claim 1, wherein the transmission gate unit includes a plurality of transmission gates connected between the odd-numbered data line and the even-numbered data line adjacent thereto. The TFT-LCD drive circuit as described in the above. 3. The TFT-LC according to claim 2, wherein each transmission gate comprises a PMOS transistor and an NMOS transistor connected in parallel with each other.
D drive circuit. 4. The transmission gate unit includes a pass transistor unit, and the pass transistor unit includes pass transistors connected between odd-numbered data lines and adjacent even-numbered data lines. The TFT-LCD driving circuit according to claim 2, wherein the driving circuit is configured. 5. The TFT-LCD driving circuit according to claim 1, wherein the charge recycling control signal is generated every time the gate line or the frame is converted. 6. The TFT-LCD driving circuit according to claim 1, wherein the charge recycle control signal is generated during a predetermined blanking time. 7. A method of driving a TFT-LCD driving circuit of a dot inversion type and a column inversion type, wherein a charge recycling control signal is applied during a horizontal blanking time or a vertical blanking time to form odd-numbered data. A TFT-LCD driving method, wherein a line and an even-numbered data line adjacent thereto are short-circuited, and charges stored in the data line are reused.